Primetime Pilot Panic - Deadline.com

Over-Achievers Of This Year’s Upfront

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday May 25, 2012 @ 6:58pm PDTTags: Chernin Entertaiment, Fake Empire, Greg Berlanti, Mark Gordon Co., Upfronts

Greg Berlanti entered the upfronts as the producer with the most pilots this year — four — in his first development season at Warner Bros. TV. Two of them, the CW’s Arrow and CBS’ Golden Boy, went to series, while a third, Fox legal drama Guilty, has a solid shot at a midseason order. Additionally, Berlanti has cable series Political Animals launching on USA this summer. Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage‘s Fake Empire also netted two new broadcast series orders. The company went 2-for-2 with its two pilots, the CW’s The Carrie Diaries and Cult, to increase its primetime portfolio to four series next season, including returning CW dramas Gossip Girl and Hart Of Dixie, and tie the Mark Gordon Co. as the pods with the most broadcast shows on the air. In addition to newly picked up comedy Family Tools and returning Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice and Criminal Minds, the Mark Gordon Co. also has Army Wives on Lifetime. With CSI: Miami ending its run, Bruckheimer TV will have three series on the air next season, same as Chernin Entertainment, which added one new series, Fox comedy Ben & Kate, to its returning New Girl and Touch; J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot (newbie Revolution and returning Person of Interest and Fringe) and Alloy (666 Park Ave, The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl).

Besides Fake Empire, the only other entity to log a 1.000 batting average this upfront was Lionsgate TV, also with two series out of two pilots, ABC darling Nashville and NBC’ midseason comedy Next Caller. The pickups capped the company’s renewed push into broadcast TV led by Chris Selak in her first season as head of development. Another established company in its first development cycle with a new top development executive, Wolf Films, which hired Danielle Gelber last July, landed its first non-Law & Order-branded new series in six years, NBC’s Chicago Fire. Two newly launched pods, Peter Traugott‘s Traugott Company and Lorenzo DiBonaventura‘s DiBonaventura Pictures Television, also scored series orders in their first year, NBC drama Do No Harm and ABC drama Zero Hour, respectively, as did two indies, Gaumont and Georgeville. READ MORE »

Swartzlander To Run ‘Cougar Town’ On TBS

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday May 25, 2012 @ 12:40pm PDTTags: Cougar Town, Ric Swartzlander, TBS

Comedy veteran Ric Swartzlander (Garry Unmarried) has been tapped as executive producer/showrunner of Cougar Town as the comedy is moving from ABC to TBS with a 15-episode fourth-season order. He succeeds Cougar Town co-creator/executive producer Bill Lawrence who … Read More »

USA: ‘Rebounding’ & ‘Modern Family’ Mating?

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday May 25, 2012 @ 12:17pm PDTTags: Rebounding, USA Network

Comedy pilot Rebounding is looking to live up to its title as producing studio 20th Century Fox TV has been shopping it to other networks since its surprising pass at Fox two weeks ago. Meanwhile, one of USA Network’s … Read More »

JoAnna Garcia Set As Female Lead In New NBC Comedy ‘Animal Practice’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday May 24, 2012 @ 6:15pm PDTTags: Animal Practice, JoAnna Garcia

Better With You star JoAnna Garcia has been tapped as the female lead opposite Justin Kirk in NBC’s new fall comedy series Animal Practice. The office comedy stars Kirk as George, a House-like veterinarian, who loves animals but usually hates … Read More »

Comedy Writer-Producer Tucker Cawley Signs Deal With Universal Television

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday May 23, 2012 @ 6:02pm PDTTags: Big Deals TV, Tucker Cawley, Up All Night

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy-winning comedy writer-producer Tucker Cawley has signed a two-year overall deal with Universal Television. Under the pact, the Everybody Loves Raymond alum will serve as executive producer/showrunner on the studio’s NBC comedy series Up All Night, which was … Read More »

Jim Parriott To Run New ABC Drama ‘Nashville’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday May 23, 2012 @ 5:00pm PDTTags: Jim Parriott, Nashville

Veteran writer-producer Jim Parriott has come on board ABC’s high-profile new drama series Nashville as executive producer/showrunner. The series, from Lionsgate TV and ABC Studios, is a family soap set against the backdrop of the Nashville music scene that follows one star at her peak (Connie Britton) and one on … Read More »

Mason Cook To Play Eddie Munster In NBC’s ‘Mockingbird Lane’ Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday May 23, 2012 @ 3:10pm PDTTags: Big Deals TV, Mason Cook, Mockingbird Lane, NBC

EXCLUSIVE: Young actor Mason Cook (Spy Kids In 4D) is set to co-star opposite Eddie Izzard and Charity Wakefield in NBC’s Munsters reboot Mockingbird Lane. The pilot, written by Bryan … Read More »

Several More New Series In Recasting Mode; Returning Ones Add/Cut Regulars

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday May 23, 2012 @ 1:46pm PDTTags: pilots, Revolution

Broadcast networks and studios continue to make tweaks to their newly picked-up series, changing and recasting some of the roles. NBC’s highest-profile new drama, J.J. Abrams-Eric Kripke’s Revolution, is reconceiving one character and phasing out another. The action drama follows a group of people struggling to survive in a world where all forms of energy have ceased to exist. The character of Rachel, mother of two of the leads, is being reworked, leading to the departure of Andrea Roth. Rescue Me alumna Roth, who was sought after this past season, played the role in the pilot after getting a straight offer. Meanwhile, the character played in the pilot by Anna Lise Phillips, a doctor, will no longer be regular. Phillips is expected to do several episodes to wrap the character’s storyline.

It’s been a busy recasting season at NBC, which made the first two major casting changes heading into the upfronts, opting to replace Julian Lawson on new drama Infamous and Amy Huberman on comedy Animal Kingdom. Additionally, the option on Khary Payton from the pilot for new comedy Go On is not being picked up. The role will not be recast. The role played by Lamman Rucker in the pilot for NBC’s comedy Save Me will be recast. There is no decision yet how the network will proceed with the regular role in another NBC comedy pilot, Guys With Kids, played as a guest star by Sara Rue, who is departing as her pilot in first position, ABC’s Malibu Country, was picked up to series. I hear NBC is weighing the options to write off the character or recast the role. Read More »

Will ‘Pan Am’ Take Flight With Amazon?

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday May 23, 2012 @ 11:07am PDTTags: ABC, Amazon, Big Deals TV, Pan Am

EXCLUSIVE: It’s been three months since ABC aired the last episode of Pan Am and almost two weeks since the network officially canceled the freshman series. But the 1960s drama is not dead, at least not yet. As I hinted in my story from two weeks ago, Pan Am producer Sony Pictures TV has been exploring a play on cable or other platforms. I have now learned that the studio has had conversations with Amazon about potentially picking up the show. (Amazon already carries Pan Am‘s first season.) Like its fellow streaming brethren Hulu and Netflix, Amazon, along with Microsoft’s Xbox, has been looking to enter the original programming space.

DirecTV entered the original series arena by picking up canceled broadcast series — NBC’s Friday Night Lights and FX’s Damages. Netflix is doing it too with a new season of Arrested Development. Picking up Pan Am would certainly put Amazon on the map, though it seems at odds with the company’s recently announced plans to focus on comedy and children’s programming produced by its newly launched Amazon Studios. Because it ran on ABC only for a brief time and because Amazon already airs Pan Am‘s produced episodes, the streaming service can embrace the series and brand it as its own. It would also complement Amazon’s upcoming comedy slate with a high-end drama the service likely can’t produce on its own just yet.

How Did Women Pilot Writers Fare For 2012?

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 5:52pm PDTTags: network TV, TV pilot season, women in Hollywood

Neely Swanson is an adjunct professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. She was formerly SVP of Development for David E. Kelley Productions. For the 3rd year, this is from her Baseline blog:

Women Writing Pilots – Nice Work if You Can Get It

By the time you read this, the networks already have announced the pilots they are picking up to series from among the ninety or so that were produced this year for ABC, CBS, CW, FOX and NBC. Certainly the relative success that CBS had with its schedule, and the more limited slots FOX has available, influenced their rationale for picking up fewer pilots to production than ABC and NBC. This year, the CW ordered 8 pilots, up from 6 in years past, an increase of 33%. But more to the point, or the point for the last few years, is how did women fare in the process this year after a banner 2011? It fit the good news/bad news scenario, or if you prefer a food metaphor, it was sweet and sour.

CBS’ ‘Rules Of Engagement’ Renewed For Seventh Season With 13-Episode Order

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday May 21, 2012 @ 1:00pm PDTTags: CBS, Rules of Engagement

After lengthy negotiations, CBS‘ long-running sitcom Rules Of Engagement has been picked up for a 13-episode seventh season. The renewal will bring the total run of the series to 100 episodes. The order ends weeks … Read More »

How Agencies Did At This Year’s Upfronts: New Scripted Series Package Scorecard

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Sunday May 20, 2012 @ 2:50pm PDTTags: CAA, Hollywood agencies, ICM, UTA, WME

The upfronts serve as a scorecard for the major agencies’ television departments. Here is our count for agency packages on the 39 new scripted primetime series ordered by the broadcast networks for the 2012/2013 season. Most of the agency totals include shared packages. Obviously, this is a very narrow snapshot of the TV agency landscape by omitting unscripted shows, returning series, and cable. We will start to expand our scorecard into those areas beginning next year.

WME – 20 (14 dramas, 6 comedies)

The Neighbors, How To Live With Your Parents, Malibu Country, Last Resort, Mistresses, 666 Park Ave, Made In Jersey, Golden Boy, Vegas, Ben & Kate, The Following, Go On, The New Normal, Chicago Fire, Revolution, Hannibal, Infamous, Beauty & The Beast, Cult, Emily Owens, MD

CAA – 16 (8 dramas, 8 comedies)*

Malibu Country, Zero Hour, Nashville, Friend Me, Made In Jersey, Elementary, Goodwin Games, The Mob Doctor, The New Normal, Save Me, Animal Practice, Guys With Kids, Hannibal, Beauty & The Beast, Family Tools, Crossbones** (*CAA’s tally may go up to 17 because agency is in negotiations for a piece of the package on comedy How To Live With Your Parents, ** CAA is packaging involvement is through financing, UTA has full package on the show in the traditional sense)

UTA – 12 (6 dramas, 6 comedies)

Red Widow, Mistresses, Elementary, Friend Me, Emily Owens MD, Mindy, Goodwin Games, Save Me, Animal Practice, Next Caller, Do No Harm, Crossbones

ICM – 5 (3 dramas, 2 comedies)

Family Tools, Revolution, Infamous, 1600 Penn, The Mob Doctor
Read More »

David Guarascio And Moses Port To Run ‘Community’, Replacing Creator Dan Harmon

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 8:00pm PDTTags: Community, David Guarascio, Moses Port

UPDATE: Dan Harmon Reacts To His Dismissal As ‘Community’ Showrunner

PREVIOUS: Comedy veterans David Guarascio and Moses Port have joined cult comedy series Community as executive producers-showrunners. Creator-executive … Read More »

Betsy Sodaro Upped To Regular On New NBC Comedy ‘Animal Practice’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 2:53pm PDTTags: Animal Practice, Betsy Sodaro

Up-and-comer Betsy Sodaro has been upped to a regular on NBC’s new single-camera comedy series Animal Practice, which stars Justin Kirk as a House-like veterinarian, who loves animals but usually hates their owners. Sodaro plays Angela, an animal handler. She … Read More »

UPFRONTS 2012: The Year Of Underdogs, Comebacks & Second Chances

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday May 18, 2012 @ 9:43am PDTTags: Cult, Partners, The Mindy Project

In my decade covering American television I can’t think of a year when more projects that started as also-rans, or came back from the dead, or barely made it to pilot, or overcame major recastings, went on to land series orders. And some of them are among next season’s most buzzed-about new shows. It feels like almost all pilots that had recastings — once an ominous sigh for a project’s future — went to series, and those that went through hardship on average fared much better than their non-problematic counterparts.

TV Upfronts 2012 When a pilot script is passed on by the network that developed it, in 99.99% of the cases that means the end of the road, with the script headed to the writer’s drawer as its final destination. But in the case of Mindy Kaling’s medical comedy The Mindy Project, a pass by NBC where it was developed led to a pilot pickup at Fox, where the project quickly emerged as the network brass’ darling and landed on the fall schedule in the plum post-New Girl time slot.

Like rejected scripts, dead pilots also hardly get resurrected. Sci-fi veteran Rockne S. O’Bannon wrote Cult for the 2005-06 development season when he landed a pilot order at the WB but the project became a casualty of the UPN/WB merger and the pilot was never made. Six years later, O’Bannon’s updated Cult script got a pilot order at the CW, the pilot was shot and took another step forward, landing a midseason series order.

It took Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchick about as long to get a comedy inspired by their real-life straight man-gay man friendship on the air. The idea’s first incarnation was at CBS during the 2006-07 development season and the second at ABC the following season. Both times, Kohan and Mutchick’s scripts went to pilot starring Jay Mohr and Brian Austin Green (CBS) and Alan Tudyk, Josh Cooke and Ty Burrell (ABC). Both times Kohan and Mutchnick felt there were script, casting and other issues. The two had moved on when last year CBS approached them about revisiting the idea but getting it right this time. The result is Partners, which also went to pilot. Read More »

TNT & Lifetime Looking At Cancelled CBS Drama ‘Unforgettable’: Will It Live On?

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 6:53pm PDTTags: CBS, Lifetime, TNT, Unforgettable

EXCLUSIVE: The cancellation of CBS’ freshman drama Unforgettable was one of the closest calls this upfront season. Now the procedural starring Poppy Montgomery and Dylan Walsh is exploring a move to cable. I’ve learned that producers Sony Pictures TV and … Read More »

WWE Monday Raw Expands To Three Hours, USA Puts Talent Upfront At Its Upfront Event

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 1:53pm PDTTags: Monday Night Raw, USA

In its first upfront event during the traditional broadcast upfront week, USA Network kept it casual, with a party vibe — cocktails on the way in, a music performance to start, a whole music set to close the presentation, which was followed by more drinks, and no executives taking the stage. Instead, the network kept its tradition of having the stars of its series present the new shows and talk up its ratings performance.

The network also made some news, with WWE star John Cena announcing that, starting with WWE Monday Night Raw‘s 1000th episode on July 23, the show will permanently expand to three hours. Read More »

2012-13 Fall Broadcast Primetime Grid

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 1:40pm PDTTags: 2012-13 schedule

UPDATED: With all five English-language broadcast networks reporting, here is how they stack up against each other in the fall. New shows in red. (Click on the chart for larger view.)

Related: … Read More »

The CW Eyes ‘The Selection’, Two Comedies For Midseason

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 10:45am PDTTags: CW, The Selection

The CW had been open to launching as many as six new drama series next season and it may still do it. The network picked up five pilots to series and the one that just missed the cut, The Selection, remains in serious contention. I hear CW brass are planning to sit down with the producers of the project next week to discuss its redeveloping. Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, who wrote the adaptation of Kiera Cass’ novels, are expected to remain on board but instead of staying close to the source material as they did this season, they will likely use the books more of a jumping-off point the second time around. The cast is expected to change, but the CW and The Selection studio Warner Bros TV are looking to keep the lead – Friday Night Lights‘ Aimee Teegarden — who got high marks. The project is being put on a fast track and, if it comes together, could join the CW’s schedule in midseason. “I truly believe that there is a series in The Selection,” CW president Mark Pedowitz said after the network’s upfront presentation today.

As part of Pedowitz’s efforts to re-introduce comedy series on the network, the CW developed several half-hour scripts. None of them was picked up to pilot — Pedowitz explained the decision with the need to stabilize the schedule, which is done easier with hourlong series. Now that he feels the lineup is in good shape, Pedowitz said he will focus attention on comedies. Of the half-hour scripts that the CW developed this past cycle, two remain in contention: an adaptation of the 2009 British comedy FM starring pre-Bridesmaids Chris O’Dowd, about two radio DJs and their producers; and the Ben McMillan- and Josh Greenbaum-written and Craig Zadan- and Neil Meron-produced Swordfighting, about two young couples. While one of the scripts is written as a single-camera and one as multi-, both may be done as single-camera as the CW will likely re-introduce scripted comedy to its drama-heavy lineup with single-camera shows. Like The Selection, the two comedy projects could be piloted off cycle and launch later in the season.

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By The Numbers

	Title	Studio	Gross
1	Marvel's The Avengers	DIS	$55.6M
2	Battleship	UNI	$25.5M
3	The Dictator	PAR	$17.4M
4	Dark Shadows	WB	$12.6M
5	What to Expect...	LG	$10.5M
6	The Best Exotic...	SEA	$3.2M
7	The Hunger Games	LG	$3.0M
8	Think Like a Man	SNY	$2.7M
9	The Lucky One	WB	$1.8M
10	Pirates!	SNY	$1.6M
11	Five-Year Engagement	UNI	$1.1M
12	Chimpanzee	DIS	$0.7M
13	Bernie	MILL	$0.5M
14	Wrath of the Titans	WB	$0.5M
15	Girl in Progress	LG	$0.5M
16	The Lorax	UNI	$0.5M
17	The Three Stooges	FOX	$0.4M
18	Mirror Mirror	REL	$0.4M
19	Cabin in...	LG	$0.4M
20	John Carter	DIS	$0.4M
SOURCE: RENTRAK

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‘Killing Them Softly’ Clip

News/Opinion Poll

Which network has the worst 2012-2013 primetime sked?

By The Numbers

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